How To Effectively Live By Faith

The author calls us to a great race. This great race is one that takes place in a stadium filled with Old Testament saints. This is not merely a coliseum of spectators; it’s a coliseum of enduring saints who have already finished running.

The word therefore is a hinge from the examples of Old Testament saints to the application in the life of the believer. No athlete would intentionally run a race carrying weights, so believers must lay aside every weight. One of the most horrifying truths about sin is that it clings to the sinner.

Sin is a real threat with which Christians must constantly contend.

Romans 7:21-23

Romans 7:21–23 ESV

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

The word race is the Greek ἀγών, where we get the word “agony.” A race is not a thing of passive luxury, but is demanding and agonizing. It requires self-discipline, determination, and perseverance

Endurance is steady determination to keep going. It means continuing even when everything in you wants to slow down or give up

It is one thing to participate in a sprint, able to be fast over a short amount of time. It is a whole nother matter to participate in a marathon. The sprinter who approaches a marathon the same way he approaches the 100-yard dash will quickly find themselves slowing down and falling behind. By the end of it, they will be in great pain and will have suffered defeat.

That is the way many people live the Christian life. They start out fast, but as the race goes on they slow down, give up, or just collapse. The Christian race is a marathon, a long-distance race, not a sprint.

Long distance runners train for months, even years, to get their bodies to the point of being able to endure the rigorous demands of running for miles on end.

It is so important for Christians to have the same mentality in their walk with God. We cannot expect a new Christian to begin acting like Jesus, overnight. It takes time…and trials…to get there.

James 1:2–3 ESV

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

At the 1964 Olympic games in Tokyo, this message was spelled out in lights:

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part; just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is … to have fought well.

So, let’s shed the excess weight of sin and get in the race. Let’s fight well.

The Apostle Paul directs us to put off the old self and to put on the new self, through the renewing of our minds.

Rejecting sin’s entanglement lets us run our race with staying power.

LOOK TO JESUS (v. 2)

When you are running, where you look is extremely important. It is typically detrimental to look at your feet or the runner coming up from behind or the crowds in the stands. The Christian race is very much like this

Considering the “Hall of Faith,” it would be normal for us to look back to those great examples of faithful living. However, it would go against the focus of the letter to the Hebrews: to present the superiority of Jesus in all matters.

We understand that Christianity is not a cult of hero worship. It is centered on the singularity of Jesus Christ.

We are not here because of Abel, Moses, Abraham, or even those who were sawn in two or those who wandered the earth living in caves. The church exists because Jesus died and rose again, and the only way to endure is by looking to him.

Jesus is the One on whom our faith is founded. He is the unshakable ground on which our hope and salvation rest. Without him, our faith is futile and we have no basis for belief.

1 Corinthians 15:14–15 ESV

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.

The entire Christian faith rests on the validity of Christ’s person and work.

Jesus being the perfecter of our faith means he is the “finisher” or “the One who completed it.” Christ’s work was perfect when he said, “It is finished,” and when the Father honored his obedience by raising him from the dead. Christ’s work is still perfect today.

As the author has made abundantly clear, Jesus continues to act as our mediator and will succeed in bringing his people home. In other words, Christ has done all things necessary to secure our salvation, and he will see his work through to the end.

Philippians 1:6

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Notice what the author of Hebrews observes about Jesus:

Jesus endured the cross to seize the blessed joy set before him. The path to victorious joy led through the cross.

Jesus scorned the shame of the cross. Jesus recognized the humiliation of the cross, but it was of no consequence to him as he considered the coming glory.

Jesus sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. From the pain and agony of the cross God exalted Jesus to the position of a throne.

Philippians 2:9-11

Philippians 2:9–11 ESV

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

CONSIDER HIS EXAMPLE (v. 3)

When we get weary in the race, when our faith runs out and we think God has turned His back, when it seems we will never get out of the mess we are in and we are sure our faith cannot hold on any longer, we should read this verse.

Assess carefully the endurance of Jesus. He endured hostility from stubborn sinners. Nothing we will ever be called to endure will compare to that which He endured.

Martin Luther

When I think of what Christ suffered, I am ashamed to call anything that I have endured suffering for his sake.

The believer under persecution should remember that he is only enduring what fell upon his Master before him.

John 15:20-21

Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

We rejoice in the fact that one day, we will live with Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:9-10

For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.

But we should also rejoice, knowing that we can live like Him right now. We do not live in our own power but in His, just as on earth He did not live in His own power but in the Father’s.

We can join in with the Apostle Paul:

Galatians 2:20

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

CONCLUSION

We live at a time where things are getting worse. There is no hope in society and there is no hope in government.

But there is hope in Christ!

And we must cling to that hope.

Consider the words of this poem, as we close.

Anonymous Poem

I want to let go, but I won’t let go.

There are battles to fight,

By day and by night,

For God and the right—

And I’ll never let go.

I want to let go, but I won’t let go.

I’m sick, ‘tis true,

Worried and blue,

And worn through and through,

But I won’t let go.

I want to let go, but I won’t let go.

I will never yield!

What! lie down on the field

And surrender my shield?

No, I’ll never let go!

I want to let go, but I won’t let go.

May this be my song

“Mid legions of wrong—

Oh, God, keep me strong

That I may never let go!”

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